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Truth in Taxation pgs 1-8 <br />Regular City Council Meeting pgs 9-15 <br />Monday, December O1, 2008 <br />Page 4 <br />3M Company, additional layoffs, frozen salaries and forced time off for some divisions; <br />the City should follow suit. <br />Mr. Anderson advised that he had send a letter to Mr. Miller with his questions regarding <br />the City's accounts payable and receivables, capital depreciation, and other areas that <br />could be frozen or actions deferred. Mr. Anderson opined that the City should freeze all <br />capital improvements going forward; reduce non-contract people; freeze salaries; and <br />eliminate part time employees and contracted services. Mr. Anderson opined that the <br />current economic situation was going to get worse; and that home sales realizing any <br />capital gains would be impossible. Mr. Anderson opined that the City adopt only a main- <br />tenance budget for the City's core services and objectives during this time. <br />Dick Houck, 1131 Roselawn Avenue <br />Mr. Houck commended Councilmembers for the time spent serving on the City Council. <br />Mr. Houck advised, however, that he was not going to commend Councilmembers for <br />their proposed tax package. Mr. Houck shared survey information from a recent newspa- <br />per article addressing various economic concerns of the public; and opined that he <br />couldn't believe that the City Council, considering the City's overall budget, couldn't <br />find enough items to reduce the proposed levy, if not making it a "zero" percent levy in- <br />crease. Mr. Houck opined that the majority of people are reducing their personal budgets <br />while the City was asking them to pay more. Mr. Houck advised that he would like to in- <br />troduce aterm not heard much in government these days: "morality." Mr. Houck opined <br />that it was dishonest and immoral when the City Council thought they could take more <br />money from people who were already doing with less, while not finding ways to cut the <br />budget themselves. <br />Mr. Houck provided his perspective of government budgets, opining that individual de- <br />partments were of the mind frame to spend their annual budget so it wasn't reduced the <br />following year. Mr. Houck further opined that the City had spent the last 20 years build- <br />ing things, and was now being faced with the realities of maintenance and upkeep of <br />those things. <br />Mr. Houck further opined that the City Council's "fiasco" at Twin Lakes had yet to re- <br />ceive apublic apology for the costs of that situation to its taxpayers; and that the City <br />Council continued to proceed as the exclusive developer of private property. Mr. Houck <br />questioned how much more money the City was going to pour into that property (i.e., <br />building of a roadway). Mr. Houck asked that the City Council seriously look at where <br />they were spending taxpayer monies; and that they not be dishonest or immoral in their <br />tax proposals. <br />Steve Youngquist, 391 S Owasso Boulevard <br />Mr. Youngquist opined that staff's presentation provided historical data that was ade- <br />quate during good times; however, further opined that the current economy was in a crisis <br />